Eyes On My Back
by Sempai Sunny
Summary: The sequel to Bent. You don't have to read Bent to get this, though. Meryl's back home, and somebody's watching her. R maybe too strong, but it could cause nightmares


Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun. I have never owned Trigun. I will never own Trigun. I also do not own any horror movie that the plot might resemble. After the series. Much after. Also takes place after my second fic, Bent. Sort of a follow up, in Meryl's POV. Sorry about my obsession with writing spoilers for episode 23. ::kuroneko purrs::  
  
Eyes on My Back  
  
That baka. I will never forgive him. He went looking for Knives years ago, shot up the dude, brought him back for us to heal, then Knives ran away. Now he's out looking for Knives again.  
  
He found his Angel Arm. And he's wearing the red-leather coat. I leave a note at our hotel in May City that I'm going home. I've waited for him too many times.  
  
So, I was home.  
  
"Stryfe? You're back?" The chief was amazed to see me walk into my desk and sit down. "Where's Thompson? And what happened to Vash the Stampede?"  
  
I sat at my typewriter, stoic. "Milly's dead, murdered, sir. Vash got himself blown up. There isn't enough of him to put together to collect the bounty. Don't alert the presses though."  
  
Obviously, I made up the part about Vash, but the chief accepted it. "That's too bad about Thompson. Did Vash the Stampede kill her?"  
  
"No. I don't know who did, sir."  
  
"Well, Stryfe, you did an excellent job. We're glad to have you back."  
  
I stared at my typewriter for hours after he left, my co-workers passing me by, sending their regrets for the unfortunate demise of my partner. At quitting time, I hadn't done a jot of work, but I left anyway.  
  
My first instinct was to go to the bar, a place that would bring both Vash and Milly back to me. The idea was nixed instantly. Another instinct told me to go to the church, also shot down by my senses.  
  
I got the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. Paranoid, I turned to my left and right, even completely around. There was no one, the street deserted. I had forgotten how empty the roads of this town were after dark. I just went home.  
  
It was comforting to be in my own home, my own bed, after something like seven years on the go, chasing after Vash the Stampede. I fixed myself the first true home-cooked meal I'd had since I left. Not even the time Milly, Vash, and I dined at the Cezar mansion was this good. Basic spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread and a salad. I felt uneasy eating alone, but that was because I wasn't used to it. I was sure that it would become nature, like it had been.  
  
After dinner, I went rummaging through my cupboards. I had rented out the house to one of Milly's sisters for the time I was gone, just so it wouldn't fall into total disrepair. She had kept it fairly neat.  
  
In the back of the cupboard, I found a box of chocolate pudding mix, with a sticky note attached, "For when Milly gets home." I sunk to the ground, holding the box, and cried. Milly, my precious, sweet, naive Milly, was never going to be able to eat this pudding, never eat any pudding. Milly wasn't coming home.  
  
That night I dreamed of all of us being together. Vash, Milly, Nicholas, and me. We were sitting around my kitchen, playing with children that looked like they were products of the love of all of us. Some with black hair and blue eyes, some with blonde hair and gray eyes. It was a pleasant dream, until a dark cloud ripped Milly and Nicholas into shreds and ran away. The children vanished, and Vash chased after the cloud.  
  
In a state of shock, I sat upright in my bed, black hair hanging in my face. Once again, I had the creepy feeling that I wasn't alone. I shook it off and fell back into a dreamless sleep.  
  
Months passed that way. Sometimes I had that dream, other times I had ones where I was with Vash, who then morphed into Knives, with a tiny charm bracelet dangling from his wrist. The charms were little boxes with tiny labels on them. The labels had the names of some of the Gung-Ho Guns, Nicholas, Milly, Vash, and my own name. Knives would then say, "These boxes are all filled with their lives. I just need your life to complete my collection." I woke up screaming every time I had that dream, because Knives would summon up all the spirits, have them aim their weapons at me, including Milly with her stun gun and Nicholas with the Cross Punisher, Knives himself holding the Angel Arm, because of Vash's promise never to take a life, and they would all take a shot at the same time.  
  
I had that dream once when I fell asleep at the agency. The people at the desks around me thought I had gone completely insane. Maybe I had.  
  
The solitary nights were now habit. I had thrown myself into total isolation, partially by force, partially by choice. Most of the other people at the office either shied away from me because of the dream incident, and others just ignored me, perhaps because I had gone on the mission of keeping Vash the Stampede under twenty-four hour surveillance.  
  
I avoided the bars and the church like the plague. I had fears that I would lose my composure, what with the bars being favorite places of Vash and Milly, and the church brought back images of Nicholas.  
  
"Strange," I told myself, "when he was alive, he was always Mr. Wolfwood to you, up until Milly died. Now he's Nicholas." I shook myself. I couldn't believe I had actually sunken so low that the only person I talked to was myself. I needed Vash back. While I was used to being alone, I still kept feeling like someone was watching me.  
  
I opened up my typewriter one morning, to find a piece of paper wafting down to the floor. I gasped as I realized it was the note left with Milly the day I had awakened to find her dead.  
  
"My Brother, Humanoid Typhoon, Vash the Stampede,  
  
"I laugh at your promise to Rem about never taking a life. You had to break that promise to save your pathetic human friend.  
  
"Well, Vash, if you're not going to kill, I'll have to, and I'll take them out, one-by-one. I've already ordered the death of one of your friends, a certain Mr. Nicholas D. Wolfwood. And now, I personally have emptied the world of one of its humans, another of your friends, Milly Thompson. I would have taken Meryl, too, but I figured that it would be more fun if I staggered it, but I will get her. You can count on it.  
  
"Remember, we are superior breeds of being. 'Would you kill the spider to save the butterfly?' Remember, Vash? I would.  
  
--Knives"  
  
Suddenly, I understood why Vash had gone out into the desert to look for Knives. I mean, how many times had I heard that broom-headed baka tell me he loved me? I knew he was sincere every time. But, this was all too much.  
  
"Stryfe! In my office!" the chief called out. I mustered as much confidence as possible for what was imminent.  
  
"Yes, sir?"  
  
"I was reviewing your reports about the surveillance of Vash the Stampede, noticing that they ended some five years ago, your last report stating that Vash had severely wounded Knives and was caring for him. Would you care to explain what you were doing the following five years, considering you were still keeping him under close watch twenty-four hours a day?" The chief watched me, waiting for my answer.  
  
"Sir, I'm sorry. I didn't have time to write, being that we were traveling from town to town quite frequently, and I was never able to post the reports that I did write. And, then, after Milly died, he got himself blown up, and it took me almost six months to get back home." My excuse was mostly true, except that Vash didn't blow himself up, though now, for all I knew, he might have been, and that it really only took me three days to get home from May City.  
  
"Out of my office, Stryfe. Get back to work."  
  
Gratefully, I nodded and curtly walked out of the office.  
  
Late that night, I was still awake, pondering why just today I had found that note. Wouldn't I have found it when I had opened it the first time, since that typewriter went everywhere with me? After hours of deep thought, I came to the conclusion that it was just a fluke, that someone had planted it there to freak me out, obviously just guessing that I had befriended Vash, and taking all other parts from the report. Obviously, they couldn't have known that Milly was killed by Knives, they probably just made that up.  
  
After that conclusion, I finally laid down and fell asleep.  
  
It was the first peaceful dream in ages. It was more of a memory, really. The quick draw contest, every detail, from my spazzing at Vash for entering in the first place, up until the two conniving gunmen warded off the other contestants with their guns. I remember the goofy grin on his face, as well as the giant smile on Nicholas's.  
  
Heavy breathing on my face woke me from my dream. Above me was a man with short, white blond hair, aqua eyes, and a look of complete psychosis.  
  
Knives had come to get me after all.  
  
I let out a scream so loud I'm sure they could have heard it all the way to December. Praising the fact I was short for the first, and probably last, time in my life, I wriggled out from beneath him and rolled under the bed.  
  
"Meryl, Meryl, Meryl. Don't think you're going to get away from me that easily." Knives was sitting on my bed, laughing. "I was going to finish you the way I did Milly. A shot right against your neck, let you bleed to death, and clean it up. But, you've just made it more fun. I do enjoy chases." He flopped down on my bed so his face was looking dead at me upside down. "Boo," he whispered, pointing a gun at me. It took me a nanosecond to realize that it was one of my Derringers. If he fired it point blank at me, which I wouldn't have put past him, I was a goner.  
  
I screamed again, a loud, uncomprehensible scream. I rolled out of the way of the gun. Knives, being the same size as Vash, was way too big to fit under my bed, so I was sort of safe, as long as he didn't lie down on the floor and shoot at me.  
  
Which, of course, he did. I rapidly slid out from underneath the bed and jumped on it. From there I started going in a zigzag pattern around my room, all too aware that he was holding my cape and my only source of protection or defense. I was standing in front of my window, when I suddenly remembered a trick Vash taught me. I watched how Knives aimed the gun, judging the trajectory. With that, I dodged out of the way, causing the bullet to shatter the windowpane. Knives put down the gun.  
  
"Meryl, you're such a silly girl. I'm not going to actually shoot you. I'm just going to let you run until you die from the exhaustion.  
  
"I kept a copy of my note to Vash for you. I assume you've received it by now?"  
  
That rat. No, rat wasn't the right word. Calling Knives that was insulting to rats. There was no way to describe the menace standing before me in my room. All I could do was nod.  
  
"Excellent. Now, I'm sure you're wondering how the hell I found you in the first place, and how I got in your room. Well, the Bernardelli Insurance Society isn't too secretive about their location, and one morning I just meandered in and asked where you live. Your company isn't too strict about their security. They gave me your address and all."  
  
I made a mental note to myself that if I lived through this to make sure that the security was tightened.  
  
"And how I got in your house, well, Meryl, apparently, one of the windows in your basement was left open."  
  
My eyes widened. I never, ever, went into the basement. Milly's sister must have used it for keeping files or something.  
  
"It was so lovely down there, a party all set up for you and Milly. Beautiful signs and streamers, all saying welcome back. It almost made me sick."  
  
All I could do was let out another blood curdling scream, which was only half complete when a gloved hand emerging from a familiar red leather coat clapped itself over my mouth. I saw the familiar glint of Vash's gun and closed my eyes. I didn't want to know what he was going to do with it.  
  
"Knives, I've told you before, that if you harmed either of the insurance girls, or Wolfwood, I would kill you and to hell with my promise to Rem. I told you through your minions, and I wrote it down for all the world to see. I proved it when I killed Legato. Now, you've picked off Wolfwood and Milly. You're not getting the last one. This is it, Knives."  
  
With that, I heard the deafening blast of Vash's gun, and the sound of a body collapsing to the floor. I opened my eyes to a squint. There was a gunshot wound right at Knives's heart, bleeding steadily. What amazed me more was what I saw before me.  
  
Two transparent figures were standing before me, a tall thin man, clad in black, and a tall girl with large eyes. They were holding each other's hand. After a second, where they stared back at me and Vash, they vanished.  
  
"Vash, did I just see what I thought I saw, or am I dreaming?"  
  
"Well, if you just saw Milly and Wolfwood, then we're both dreaming or it just happened."  
  
We stood by the broken window in silence. I broke it.  
  
"Vash, did you come because of the scream?"  
  
"Well," he started, eyes fixed on his now-dead twin, "You knew I had been chasing Knives, catching glimpses of him. When I caught up with him back in May City, obviously going after you, he flashed your note at me.  
  
"I vaguely remembered you saying what town you were from, so I got there as fast as possible, keeping an eye out for Knives, but not disturbing your new, tranquil life. I would sometimes watch you come home at night, and I kept my own sort of surveillance of your house.  
  
"Tonight, I watched Knives climb into your basement window. I decided to sit on the roof of your house and hope that you hadn't come home tonight. When I heard the screams, I tried to figure out the fastest way into your bedroom. When Knives shot out the window, I slid down the wall until my feet hit the windowsill, and you know what happened from there."  
  
"I can't believe you. For months I'd been feeling like someone was watching me, since I came home."  
  
"I was. Knives never really left May City. And I knew it. I just went out in the desert so you wouldn't freak out too much. We got here the day after you did. Or at least I did. Who knows when he got here."  
  
I didn't know how to respond to that, nor did I want to. All I did was let Vash wrap his arms around me and we stared at the corpse of Knives until sunrise. 


End file.
